The 2006 calendar year was a mixed bag for area sports.

Kansas University’s men’s hoops team opened the year with some of its best basketball of the season as the calendar flipped to January, but by March all that promise flamed out in another stunning first-round NCAA Tournament ouster.

Spring sprung, and it was a banner season for the local bat-and-ball sports. Free State High won the Class 6A state baseball title, then the KU softball and baseball teams surprised the Big 12 Conference by winning the league postseason titles. Along the way, Serena Settlemier blasted her way into the record books.

The specter of NCAA probation hung over the summer, and college athletics’ governing body lowered the boom in October.

Also in the fall, Free State’s football team was fashioning its best season ever, KU’s football team was finding new and creative ways to blow late leads, and Jon Cornish was running to glory.

Fall yielded to the winter-sports season, and again the KU basketball team provided another memorable moment – a victory against Florida, the defending national champion and the top-ranked team in the country.

Like we said, it was a mixed bag.

What follow are the top-10 local sports stories, as voted by The World Company sports staff – Journal-World writers and editors, Channel 6 sportscasters and World Online staff:

10) Unbearable (10-22-06) For an incredible six-game stretch, Kansas University’s football team managed to outdo its own amazing way to find defeat when victory seemed unavoidable.

Between a Sept. 15 loss to Toledo on national television and an Oct. 21 meltdown against Baylor, Kansas went 1-5, holding a second-half lead in all five losses and finding a way to make all five disappear. The only victory in that span was a 13-7 win over South Florida, but even the Bulls were throwing for the end zone on the game’s final two plays.

Considering how all the other games went in that stretch, ever wonder why USF didn’t squeak out a 14-13 win?

The Toledo game was heartbreaking, with huge turnovers erasing sure paths to victory. Kansas lost, 37-31, in two overtimes.

Two weeks later, KU held a 25-24 fourth-quarter lead at Nebraska but lost in overtime. Then, KU blew an 18-7 fourth-quarter lead against Texas A&M. Next, a 17-0 second-half lead became a 42-32 loss to Oklahoma State (remember Adarius Bowman?)

But, remarkably, the Baylor blowup topped them all. Down 35-17 with less than 10 minutes remaining, the Bears scored three stunning touchdowns in a span of eight minutes to win, 36-35.

“If I had an explanation,” coach Mark Mangino groused after the Baylor game, “we would’ve corrected it awhile back, wouldn’t we?”

With no answer, KU fans were left witnessing an epic run of stumbling and bumbling – painful to remember, impossible to forget.

9) Later, Gators (11-26-06) Given how sloppy the Kansas University men’s basketball team looked just 24 hours earlier while trudging through an ugly win over Ball State, it made KU handing Florida its first loss since winning the 2006 NCAA Tournament seem even more improbable.

But KU saved its most explosive, energetic performance for the first game of the 2006-07 season that fans really were jonesing to see: Kansas 82, Florida 80 in OT.

Sophomore Julian Wright played the best game of his young KU career, scoring the bulk of his 21 points in the first half and also pulling down 10 rebounds. “It’s hard to imagine a college player having a better game, a better half,” KU coach Bill Self said. “Julian was as good as Julian probably has ever been in his life.”

Down the stretch, it was freshman Darrell Arthur calmly polishing off a 19-point, nine-rebound night and showing no fear against Florida’s twin towers – Joakim Noah and Al Horford.

Despite the game being set up on what was supposed to be a neutral site at Orleans Arena, the building was filled with Jayhawk faithful, who gave KU a homecourt feel all weekend.

“Our guys kept coming back, coming back,” Self said. “We were down three and get layups (in overtime) against Florida. Our guards did a great job getting the ball to the post, probably the best job of that since I’ve been at Kansas.”

8) Serena supreme (05-11-06) It will be a tough task for any future KU softball player to match the season Serena Settlemier had in 2006.

We’re running out of adjectives. Incredible. Remarkable. Historical. Maybe even legendary.

“She’s been amazing,” KU coach Tracy Bunge said during the season. “What else can I say?”

That’s plenty, coach.

Whether pitching or hitting, Settlemier did more than just win Big 12 Conference player-of-the-year honors. She cemented her spot as one of KU softball’s all-time greats.

A fifth-year senior, Settlemier hit .326 with 22 home runs, 61 RBIs and a .771 slugging percentage in 62 games. She had an incredible six grand slams, blasting one over the fence almost every time she came up with the bases juiced.

Pitching, Settlemier was 17-7 with a 1.44 earned-run average, striking out 146 batters. Along with hard-throwing Kassie Humphreys, Settlemier provided firepower both in the circle and with the stick to lead Kansas to a 36-26 record, Big 12 tournament title and NCAA Tournament appearance.

The honors, predictably and deservedly, poured in for Settlemier, including the Big 12 honors, second-team All-America and a professional opportunity with the Texas Thunder of the National Pro Fastpitch League.

It was some season – one that will be hard to forget.

7) Tourney tamers (05-14-06) Entering as the No. 6 seed, Kansas University’s softball team could’ve been happy just making a little noise in the Big 12 tournament.

But a sonic boom? Hey, the Jayhawks will take that, too.

KU stunned the Big 12 by scooting through the tournament bracket and capturing the title May 13.

The Jayhawks finished their remarkable run by going 4-0 in the three-day tournament – three wins against higher seeds – including a 4-2 victory over Oklahoma in the title game.

Serena Settlemier – big surprise – was named tournament MVP just days after being named Big 12 player of the year. She went 3-for-3 with a double in the title game.

“It’s just an awesome feeling,” Settlemier said afterward.

So what was more fun: hoisting the trophy in the air or the unexpected makeover of short-haired coach Tracy Bunge the following week? With a written contract drummed up before the tourney saying Bunge would get hair extensions if a tournament title was won, KU’s longtime coach owned up to her word.

So Bunge was all dolled up with long blonde hair during the NCAA Tournament, where KU went 1-2 with both losses coming to Washington. But the elimination did little to spoil the magical season.

That legacy already was chiseled in stone.

6) Dream season finished (11-21-06) The lack of state championship hardware couldn’t erase the memories Free State’s finest football team in its 10-year history left on the school and the city.

Aside from setting the bar high for future Firebird teams, Free State, if just for a year, shifted the traditional power scale in the city as far as high school football goes.

Before bowing out in the state semifinals to eventual state runner-up Shawnee Mission West, Free State senior twins Ryan and Brian Murphy keyed an offense that victimized opponents week in and week out. Ryan produced in every way possible from the quarterback post, accumulating 2,947 yards of total offense and putting his stamp on 32 total touchdowns. Brian rushed for 1,095 yards and 17 touchdowns.

The throne in the offensive department is now handed over to Craig Rosenstengle and Chucky Hunter. The two were the Firebirds’ leading receivers, and now Rosenstengle will take over under center, while Hunter’s speed will be utilized at the running back spot.

It was hard to overlook Free State’s dominant line, though. Kyle Weinmaster, Mikel Ruder, Christian Ballard, Andy Petz and Jimmy Bruce up front only got better as the season progressed.

“This was a class bunch of kids to be around,” Free State coach Bob Lisher said at season’s end. “They were fun. They made practice fun. They were positive and very coachable.”

5) Heitshusen’s arm, bat help Firebirds claim school’s first state baseball championship (05-28-06) The heartbreak from the previous two years made the 2006 Class 6A state baseball championship that much more enjoyable for Free State.

After losing on a walk-off blast in the semifinals to Goddard in 2004, and then being upset in the opening round by Shawnee Mission Northwest in 2005, no one deserved a magical run more than Mike Hill’s senior-laden crew in May.

In the opener, an upset was brewing again, but the Firebirds overcame a two-run deficit to Dodge City with a four-run sixth inning, keyed by a Hunter Scheib two-run double. Free State followed it with a 7-0 pasting of Goddard in the semifinals, with a six-hit shutout thrown by Travis Blankenship and a 4-for-4 showing by Ben Wilson at the dish.

To finish things off, Free State again showed a flair for the dramatic, as Scott Heitshusen threw a complete game for the win after winning in relief against Dodge City a day earlier. He also had a monstrous two-run home run in the third inning to tie the game.

“When we get down, there’s nothing to worry about with our team,” Heitshusen said afterward. “When we’re up at the plate, we can make anything happen at any time, so there was nothing to worry about.”

From there, it was all semantics as the Firebirds brought back from Wichita the school’s second state championship in any sport.

4) Save the date (05-29-06) Of the 19 saves Don Czyz tallied as a Kansas University closer, No. 18 was most memorable for both the effect and the aftermath.

With a 9-7 upset of Nebraska on May 28 in the Big 12 tournament final, the Jayhawks won their first-ever baseball championship in the conference. It was the school’s first league title of any kind since winning the Big Seven championship in 1947.

Czyz, who before being drafted in the seventh round by the Florida Marlins developed into one of the nation’s top stoppers, found himself on the bottom of a celebratory scrum on the pitcher’s mound after the final out went in the books.

“I was on top of him, grabbing him,” senior Matt Baty said at the time. “That’s just an awesome feeling. First time since high school to do a dog pile, and it’s a dream come true my senior year, all those years of hard work paying off.”

It was the best possible scenario for a team which entered the conference tournament just hoping to get a win or two to solidify its outside shot at the NCAA Tournament.

What KU wound up doing was beating the foursome of Nebraska, Missouri, Oklahoma and Oklahoma State. The Huskers, Cowboys and Sooners all were ranked in the top 15 at the time.

“We played with some confidence, and we played with some swagger,” Kansas coach Ritch Price said. “I don’t know if anybody in the country had a better weekend than we just had.”

3) Cornish on the cusp (11-25-06) Some running backs, like former Jayhawk Clark Green, always could muscle out the tough yard. Others, like former Jayhawk John Randle, were occasional big-play threats out of the backfield.

And then there was KU senior Jon Cornish, who proved time and again that he could be both.

Cornish turned in a Herculean season for the Jayhawks in 2006, rushing for 1,457 yards to establish a KU school record. He edged Tony Sands’ 1991 mark of 1,442 yards to claim single-season supremacy, a title he hinted more than once he desired have.

Cornish rarely was held under 100 yards in a game, and he did it by pounding out small gains throughout – always falling forward, always skipping ahead for an extra yard – and breaking off a big 30-plus yard run nearly every week.

Thanks in part to a 196-yard effort against Baylor and a 201-yard game against Kansas State, Cornish went into the season finale at Missouri needing just 112 yards to break Sands’ mark.

Missouri pounded Kansas, 42-17, that day, but Cornish tallied 126 yards for the record. Despite having a 12th game on the schedule that Sands didn’t have, Cornish set the mark with 22 fewer carries than Sands.

“Jon’s a success story,” KU coach Mark Mangino said. “No matter how you slice it. No matter how you look at it.”

2) NCAA punishes KU (10-13-06) Some say KU dodged a bullet. Others think the drawn-out process alone was enough of a stain.

An 18-month ordeal stemming from NCAA violations, at long last, had its final chapter written Oct. 10, when the NCAA gave its final ruling on violations committed within KU’s athletic department between 2000 and 2005.

The biggie was a three-year probation sentence for a lack of institutional control, a term passed down by the NCAA and later found justified by the Infractions Committee after KU officials attended a day-long hearing in Baltimore over the summer.

The NCAA also nailed football and men’s basketball with penalties in addition to the ones already self-imposed. Among them, football lost three scholarships and men’s basketball one. Hoops also had to cut down its number of official visits.

Despite the scolding, a sigh of relief was heard among all the seriousness that day. Kansas was hit with no postseason ban in any sport, and no television restrictions were levied, either. In fact, football coach Mark Mangino and basketball coach Bill Self implied that the penalties placed on their programs hardly were devastating blows.

“We have taken compliance very seriously since we’ve been here,” Self said. “Regardless of what you do, you can always do more.”

1) Sadly, Bradley (03-18-06) During a second-half timeout on March 17, the Kansas University basketball band broke out with a Fall Out Boy song – one that eerily foreshadowed how the Jayhawks’ night in Auburn Hills, Mich., would end up.

“We’re going down, down in an earlier round/And sugar, we’re going down swinging.”

Sure enough.

True to the tune, KU’s basketball team fell to Bradley, 77-73, in the first round of the NCAA Tournament that night. Bradley eventually advanced to the Sweet 16, while the Jayhawks were left winless in the Big Dance for the second straight season.

So many moments inside the Palace of Auburn Hills showed that the young KU team just wasn’t ready for the big stage. Couple that with everything that went Bradley’s way – 11 three-pointers and a 28-foot buzzer-beater before halftime, to list just two – and Kansas trailed nearly the entire game. The Jayhawks stormed back from a 14-point second-half deficit, but getting over the hump seemed insurmountable.

“Flat is not the right term,” KU coach Bill Self said after the game. “In awe, maybe.”

Considering KU had won 15 of 16 heading into the Bradley game, seeing the young Jayhawks freeze up under the bright lights was surprising.

But for the second straight year, the Jayhawks were going down, down in an earlier round.